Newsreader- A connotational analysis

To start my analysis of a newsreader I decided to look for a short sequence on YouTube that pretty much summaries how it starts and finishes. Bellow I embedded an old ITV news at 10 sequence.



As you can see in this sequence before the news actually started we hear a loud bell ringing and then we are already introduced to a story which we will be hearing from later on in the news. The bell ringing connotes the fact that it is bang on 10 o'clock, the exact time the news should start. The short introduction to the story is trying to tell us that that story is the main story of the day.

Following that we are then taken straight into the title sequence which plays a big role in the news industry. The title sequence has to put up a show in order for the news to be seen as interesting and important. The title sequence is consisted of fast rushing graphics and fast pace music to connote emergency/urgency. We start at the top of the earth and are taken through a series of cities and finally we finish at the Big Ben showing a time of 10 o'clock.

Once the news starts we first see two news readers sitting at a desk in a studio. They both are well dressed and presented. Also they have a series of paper work in front of them which to us connotes importance. To start the news we have the man telling the first news and the woman sitting quietly waiting to go second. As we can see the male reporter seems to be more of a middle age and the woman is much younger compared to him. The use of the middle aged men is simply because they tend to connote knowledge. The use of the young good looking female connotes beauty. This kind of stereotype is mostly seen in news.
The reporters when doing their job have a limited face expression. When they telling us the news they cannot show feelings as happy, sad and many mores simply because they are telling us and we have the write to think and feel how we want and not how they want. They have to use formal standard English and serious tone at all the time. This implies that what they are telling the audience/viewers is very important.

Mise-en-scene of the studio:
The mise-en-scene on this ITV news at 10 is very consistent. We can see a lot of transparent blue colour. The use of the transparency may be a way of them trying to show that their work is not unbiased. There isn't much happening in mise-en-scene as it seems like there is only a desk located in the middle of the room. This desk is very clean and tidy which might connote that ITV are well organised especially because everything on the room seems new. Lastly we have a huge background which shows a dark city. Once again this connotes the time of the news as it is at 10 o'clock it is very dark.